This disclosure relates to high strength fine-grained spinel for window applications, methods of manufacture thereof and to articles comprising the same.
High strength, high hardness, transparent materials with low optical scatter are needed for transparent armor such as Humvee windows, and as infrared windows for missile radomes. Currently ballistic glass bonded to plastic is being used for transparent armor while single crystal Al2O3 (sapphire) is being used as a missile dome material. Ballistic glass suffers with issues related to its hardness and ballistic stopping power per unit of weight. Sapphire domes are expensive since there is a substantial amount of machining required of the single crystal boule to make suitable dome shapes. It is therefore desirable to find a material other than glass and sapphire that can be used.